Joseph Smith and Egyptian Artifacts: A Model for Evaluating the Prophetic Nature of the Prophet’s Ideas about the Ancient World

Abstract

Joseph Smith possessed some papyri for Egypt from 1835 until the end of his life. He is reported to have said a great deal about these papyri and the mummies he owned. This article explores paradigms for how to evaluate his purported statements about his antiquities that were not canonized. It also compares some of his purported non-canonized explanations of drawings on the papyri to current Egyptological understandings of them.